An Interesting Experience Today

Today, I had a really neat and interesting experience. I've not had
this happen in a long time. I am pleasantly surprised. Aside from more material coming in that I bought, traded, and won in auctions, something more interesting happened today.
My lessons finished at noon today. I have to stick around for another 2 hours for office hours. It's usually a quiet time. I get alot of lesson prep done and from time to time catch up with people I work with that I don't see often.
Today, I got a phonecall from a man at 1 pm. He told me he needed my help and wanted to speak with me. When I asked what it was about he told me, "It's better if we talk about it in person." So, I invited him to my office. Generally, if someone wants to talk about something in person, it's not exactly for a positive reason. This man works in the IT dept and I was expecting something about one of my students destroying property, password problems, or something like that. Instead I got a bigger shock.
Well, the IT man arrived today. He's from India and quite a nice fellow. It turns out that I had more post over in the main canteen. He saw the German stamps on one of my packages and wanted them for his wife who collects. He used to collect stamps when he was younger but has gone on to coins now. I'll have to convert him! :) Of course, I immediately agreed to giving him the package as a fellow Philatelist should. :)
So, I hope that he and I will be in touch. That's the first time this happened to me in a long time. When I was in the military and in Germany one of the secretaries in the Orderly Room collected American stamps.

Philatelic meetings, especially surprise ones, are always a pleasure.

Don't lose touch.

I think I may head over to the IT building tomorrow before the weekend. He said he had some Indian items
for me. I might be able to get some really interesting things. Even basic stamps I got off of people I've met in
life are special for me. When I was a teenager (I grew up in Germany) I met a guy who was an asylum seeker there.
He was always outside sitting on a park bench or at a cafe drinking tea. We went back to the US about a year and a half after we met and he tried to give me a gold watch. I refused because for me it's not a material thing. I like people for their personalites. He insisted on giving me something, so I asked for stamps off his envelopes.
Everytime I look at them I think about our friendship.

I just opened a letter from a friend of mine in Germany. Earlier this
month I send her a birthday present. Postage was $ 16.45. I had asked the post office clerk (nice woman) to put stamps on my package.
She did a nice assortment. The stamps were not cancelled and my friend send them back to me. Win - win - win all over. Free postage,
nice stamps and savings or a case of beer for stamping activities.....

That's a nice story Ajnaabi,
thanks for sharing.